Liveblogging World War II: June 21, 1944 (US Time): Battle of the Philippine Sea

The Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 19–20, 1944) was a decisive naval battle of World War II which eliminated the Imperial Japanese Navy's ability to conduct large-scale carrier actions. It took place during the United States' amphibious invasion of the Mariana Islands during the Pacific War. The battle was the last of five major "carrier-versus-carrier" engagements between American and Japanese naval forces, and involved elements of the United States Navy's Fifth Fleet as well as ships and land-based aircraft from the Imperial Japanese Navy's Mobile Fleet and nearby island garrisons.

The battle was nicknamed the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot by American aviators for the severely disproportional loss ratio inflicted upon Japanese aircraft.... It took nearly a year for the Japanese to reconstitute their airgroups following the Solomons campaign. Their initial plan was to engage the U.S. Pacific Fleet in early 1944, whenever it launched its next offensive, but the decisive battle necessarily had to be delayed.... In 1944, the Fast Carrier Task Force, under Admiral Marc Mitscher (known as Task Force 58 when part of Admiral Raymond Spruance's Fifth Fleet and Task Force 38 when led by Admiral William F. Halsey as part of the Third Fleet), began a series of softening-up missions....

The Japanese commanders saw the Marianas island group in the central Pacific, including Guam, Tinian, and Saipan, as the inner circle of defense.... American control of the Marianas would put the Japanese home islands within effective range of American bombers.... This would be their time to bring the US Navy into the long awaited decisive battle.... The Japanese were looking to engage and defeat Task Force 58.... Though outnumbered in ships and aircraft, they planned to supplement their carrier airpower with land-based aircraft... [with] superior range....

A new Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet, Admiral Soemu Toyoda, was appointed. He continued the current work, finalizing the Japanese plans known as "Plan A-Go"... in early June 1944.... The Japanese fleet, commanded by Vice-Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa, consisted of three large fleet carriers (Taihō, Shōkaku, and Zuikaku), two converted carriers (Junyō and Hiyō), four light carriers (Ryūhō, Chitose, Chiyoda, and Zuihō), five battleships (Yamato, Musashi, Kongō, Haruna and Nagato), 13 heavy cruisers, 6 light cruisers, 27 destroyers, six oilers, and 24 submarines. The main portions of the fleet rendezvoused on June 16 in the western part of the Philippine Sea and completed refueling on June 17....

Task Force 58 was made up of five task groups. Deployed in front of the carriers to act as an anti-aircraft screen was the battle group of Vice Admiral Willis Lee; Task Group 58.7 (TG-58.7), contained seven fast battleships (Washington (flagship), North Carolina, Indiana, Iowa, New Jersey, South Dakota, and Alabama), and eight heavy cruisers (Baltimore, Boston, Canberra, Indianapolis, Wichita, Minneapolis, New Orleans, and San Francisco). Just north of them was the weakest of the carrier groups, Rear Admiral William K. Harrill's Task Group 58.4 of one fleet carrier (Essex) and two light carriers (Langley, and Cowpens). To the east, in a line running north to south, were three groups, each containing two fleet carriers and two light carriers: Rear Admiral Joseph Clark's Task Group 58.1 (Hornet, Yorktown, Belleau Wood and Bataan); Rear Admiral Alfred Montgomery's Task Group 58.2 (Bunker Hill, Wasp, Cabot, and Monterey); and Rear Admiral John W. Reeves's Task Group 58.3 (Enterprise, Lexington, San Jacinto, and Princeton). These capital ships were supported by 13 light cruisers, 58 destroyers, and 28 submarines....

As the morning broke... a Mitsubishi Zero, found TF-58. After radioing his sighting of U.S. ships, he attacked one of the destroyers on picket duty and was shot down.... The Japanese began launching their aircraft on Guam.... A group of thirty F6F Hellcats were dispatched from the Belleau Wood... 35 of the Japanese aircraft were shot down, for the loss of a single Hellcat.... At 09:57 large numbers of bogeys were picked up approaching the fleet.... At 10:23, when Mitscher ordered Task Force 58 to turn into the wind on course east-southeast, and ordered all fighter aircraft aloft.... The first group of Hellcats met the raid, still at 70 miles (110 km), at 10:36.... Within minutes, 25 Japanese aircraft had been shot down, against the loss of only one U.S. aircraft. The Japanese aircraft that survived were met by other fighters, and 16 more were shot down. Of the 27 aircraft which now remained, some made attacks on the picket destroyers USS Yarnall and USS Stockham but caused no damage. Between three and six bombers broke through to Lee's battleship group and commenced their attacks, one of which scored a direct hit on the main deck of USS South Dakota.... Not one aircraft of Ozawa’s first wave got through to the American carriers....

At 11:07, radar detected another, much larger attack... 107 aircraft.... Six attacked Rear Admiral Montgomery’s group, nearly hitting two of the carriers and causing casualties on each.... 97 of the 107 attacking aircraft were destroyed.

The third raid, consisting of 47 aircraft.... A few broke through and made an ineffective attack on the Enterprise group. Many others did not press home their attacks. This raid therefore suffered less than the others, and 40 of its aircraft managed to return to their carriers.

The fourth Japanese raid was launched between 11:00 and 11:30, but pilots had been given an incorrect position for the US fleet and could not locate it.... One group flying toward Rota stumbled upon Montgomery’s task group.... Thirty of the 49 Japanese aircraft were shot down, and the rest were damaged beyond repair. Aboard the Lexington afterward, a pilot was heard to remark "Hell, this is like an old-time turkey shoot!"

Including the continued aerial slaughter over Orote Field, Japanese losses exceeded 350 planes on the first day of battle. American losses were relatively light, with about thirty planes being lost. Damage to American ships was minimal, and even the damaged South Dakota was able to remain in formation....

At 08:16 the submarine USS Albacore, which had sighted Ozawa’s own carrier group, had maneuvered into an ideal attack position.... Taihō... the sixth torpedo struck the carrier on her starboard side.... Initially, the damage to Taihō seemed minor... however, gasoline vapors from the ruptured fuel tanks began to fill the hangar decks, creating an increasingly dangerous situation on board....

USS Cavalla... fired a spread of six torpedoes, three of which struck the Shōkaku on her starboard side.... One torpedo had hit the forward aviation fuel tanks near the main hangar, and aircraft that had just landed and were being refueled exploded into flames.... A series of terrific explosions simply blew the ship apart about 140 miles (230 km) north of the island of Yap. The carrier rolled over and slid beneath the waves taking 887 navy officers and men plus 376 men of the 601st Naval Air Group.... There were 570 survivors.... Meanwhile, Taihō was falling victim to poor damage control.... Of her complement of 1,751, a total of 1,650 crewmen were lost.

TF-58 sailed west during the night to attack the Japanese at dawn. Search patrols were put up at first light. Admiral Ozawa had transferred to... the carrier Zuikaku... learned of the disastrous results of the previous day and that he had about 150 aircraft left. Nevertheless, he decided to continue the attacks, thinking there were still hundreds of aircraft on Guam and Rota.... On June 20... at 15:12 a garbled message from one of the Enterprise search planes indicated a sighting.... Of the 240 planes that were launched for the strike, 14 aborted... arrived over the Japanese fleet just before sunset.... The carrier Hiyo was attacked and hit by bombs and aerial torpedoes from four Grumman Avengers from Belleau Wood... taking the lives of 250 officers and men. The rest of her crew, about one thousand, survived.... The carriers Zuikaku, Junyō, and Chiyoda were damaged by bombs, as was the battleship Haruna.... Knowing his aviators would have difficulty finding their carriers, Mitscher decided to fully illuminate his carriers, shining searchlights directly up into the night, despite the risk of attack from submarines and night-flying aircraft.... 80 of the returning aircraft were lost, some crashing on flight decks, the majority going into the sea. Most of their crews (approximately three quarters) were rescued over the next few days.

That night, Admiral Ozawa received orders from Toyoda to withdraw from the Philippine Sea. U.S. forces gave chase, but the battle was over.... [Japanese] losses totaled three carriers, more than 433 carrier aircraft, and around 200 land-based aircraft. Losses on the U.S. side on the first day were only 23 aircraft. [In] the second day's airstrike... twenty were lost to enemy action in the attack, while 80 more were lost when one by one they expended their fuel and had to ditch...

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The Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 19–20, 1944) was a decisive naval battle of World War II which eliminated the Imperial Japanese Navy's ability to conduct large-scale carrier actions. It took place during the United States' amphibious invasion of the Mariana Islands during the Pacific War. The battle was the last of five major "carrier-versus-carrier" engagements between American and Japanese naval forces, and involved elements of the United States Navy's Fifth Fleet as well as ships and land-based aircraft from the Imperial Japanese Navy's Mobile Fleet and nearby island garrisons.

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